Exercise Wednesday — Favorite Shirt

Everyone has a favorite shirt. (If they don’t, they should.) It could be a shirt that they’ve owned forever and just liked. It could be a shirt that reminds them of a favorite time in their lives. It could be a shirt that once belonged to a loved one who has died or is no longer around. It could be the shirt they wore to the Dave Matthews concert when they got to go backstage and meet Dave himself.

Depending on your character’s age, it could be the first shirt she bought for herself after she got a new job, or the jersey that a favorite player signed at a professional sports event. It could be the last shirt their deceased spouse bought for them, the love of it only heightened by its hideousness. It could be the garish shirt their young child picked out for them the first time they were old enough to pick something. Or it could be the lucky shirt used to land that first big deal.

Maybe the shirt is brand new, or maybe it’s old and ragged and must be retired. Maybe the event involving the shirt is mirroring an event in life. Maybe the person who owns the shirt is going through a change and will never wear the shirt again. Or maybe the protagonist is looking back on when they received the shirt and wistfully remembering what’s passed between then and now.